


It's always been us

by Andrin_rin



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Childhood Friends, Detention, Doctor Who: Academy Era, Friends to Lovers, Gallifrey, Gallifreyan Culture (Doctor Who), Happy Ending, Koschei is bad with emotions, M/M, Misunderstandings, POV The Doctor (Doctor Who), POV The Master (Doctor Who), Roommates, Ushas is so done, ohmygodtheywereroommates, they are both stupid, will update the tags as I'm updating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:00:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29678781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andrin_rin/pseuds/Andrin_rin
Summary: Theta is Koscheis best friend. And that's that. They are friends. Nothing more. Right???Koschei is helplessly in love with his best friend Theta. Has been for years. It shouldn't be that hard to just admit his feelings, should it? If Koschei just wasn't so scared of ruining their friendship.And Ushas?  She just wants some peace and quiet.
Relationships: The Doctor | Theta Sigma/The Master | Koschei (Doctor Who: Academy Era), The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	It's always been us

**Author's Note:**

> Rating is mainly teen, but there's a few sex scenes I have planned for later on. I'll warn you when it gets to that tho.
> 
> Also Characters like Millennia, Rallon, Vansell, Borusa etc. may be out of character. I'm pretty unfamiliar with some of them and partially know them only from other fanfictions. They'll mainly be the way I need them to be for the story. 
> 
> But pls if you want you can also help me out in the comments xD just tell me what the characters are like, either in canon or your headcanon, and I can work that into the story :) 
> 
> Now have fun reading <3

𝙿𝙾𝚅𝙺𝚘𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚒

It starts as soon as he wakes up. Koschei opens his eyes and already feels like shit. He doesn’t know why. It’s not like he and Theta stayed up too long last evening at least not as long as they both do normally. Quite the contrary. Koschei actually managed to coax Theta into bed much earlier than most days. And they didn’t have anything to drink either. So he can’t be hungover.Still his chronic headache is much worse than normally. The dull thudding behind his temples not just uncomfortable anymore, but downright painful.

It seems to be just one of those days.

_One of those days._

He lets out a sigh in resignation and forces himself to get up. Theta, in the bed on the other side of the room, is still fast asleep snoring away and and drooling onto his pillow, his mouth slightly opened. He’s folded himself into some sort of impossible pretzel shape tangled up in the bedsheets, his blond hair, always just a little bit too long to make for a decent haircut, sticking up from his head in all directions. He’s pretty like this. Looking comfortable and warm and sweet and it makes Koscheis hearts ache with longing. The urge to cuddle up next to the sleeping boy prickling under his skin.

Quite a common occurrence lately he’s noticed. Wanting be close to Theta. Wanting Theta. It’s always been there. Inside of him. This want. For as long as he can remember. But it’s quite different these days. Different to his want to be Thetas friend as a kid. He’s noticed it changing quite a while ago. He just wants _more._

He never gives in though. Doesn’t lie down next to Theta doesn’t brush stands of blond hair out of his face. Doesn’t- He doesn’t. Instead he turns away and walks into the bathroom.

His head still hurts when he’s standing in fron of the bathroom mirror so he splashes cold water into his face. Then drinks as much as he can, not like it will bring him any relief.

Every time Ushas tells him, his only problem is dehydration, he wants to punch her in the face. One of these days he’s gonna do it. Cold water, pain medication, meditating- nothing ever truly helps, but he keeps humoring himself. _It’s just one of those days._

Through the door he can hear Thetas morning alarm goes off. With a heavy sigh he rubs his fingertips over his temples and withstands the urge to punch his head into the mirror. Miraculously he manages to ignore the alarm just long enough to finish getting ready, but when the sound just doesn’t seem to stop he can’t take it anymore and storms back out into their shared room.

Theta is still asleep. _How._ Sleeping without a bother and snoring loudly into his pillows. How he can sleep with the loud beeping just next to his head, escapes Koscheis imagination. Why do they even have the alarm? Certainly not for Koschei, he usually wakes up without it anyways. And apparently not for Theta either.

Angrily he pulls the covers off the other sleeping boy, who only makes a confused whine and tries rolling over and pulling the blankets over himself again, but Koschei pushes them off the bed. He reaches over to shut up the alarm and finally it’s quiet again.

Theta blinks at him in confusion. „Uhhh what? Where is my blanket?“

„You don’t need your blanket, Theta. It’s almost time for class. Get out of bed now before I have to drag you out!“

„What?“ Theta rubs his eyes in confusion and finally sits up.

„I said it’s time for class. Your alarm has been going off for ages. Get your arse out of bed.“

„How can you be so awake already? And rude!“ Theta pouts and Koschei cant help but think how cute it looks. _Shut up Koschei._ He shuts down that train of thought.

„The real question is how you can still be asleep. Now get. up. I’m not showing up late to class, because you wanted to sleep in.“ Because Theta doesn’t seem to have any intentions of actually getting up any time soon, Koschei grabs him by his leg and starts dragging him off the mattress.

„Hey! Stop it!“ Halfheartedly Theta tries wriggling himself free before he gives up. “Uhhh fine! I’m up I’m up! You can relax now _uhhh_.“ Koschei lets Thetas leg go so he can stand up and make his way into the bathroom.

„And hurry up!“

„I am!“

„You better.“

„Uhhhgh!“

With that Theta vanishes into the bathroom and the last Koschei hears of him is him mumbling something under his breath that sounds a lot like _why does my best friend have no chill at all_ and _why must I suffer like this_ before the door slams shut.

The look at the clock doesn’t soothe Koscheis mind at all. „Were leaving in ten minutes minimum!“ He yells into the direction of the bathroom while he starts packing both their books for the day.

He hears an annoyed groan through the door.

„Fine!“

* * *

𝙿𝙾𝚅𝙺𝚘𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚒

They finally make it to class and are only late by a few minutes. Which basically means they are fucked.

Their teacher for the first lesson of the day, Borusa, does not care one bit that it’s barely even 2 minutes into the lesson when the both of them slip through the classroom doors. In his mind they entered the classroom after the bell rang and are therefore late for class. The older Time Lord is _fuming_. He makes both of them stand in front of the class for what feels like at least ten minutes while he reprimands them. Going on an on about how important punctuality is and how unreliable they show to be, time and time again, and of course reminding them that their actions will have consequences.

Koschei can’t help, but think that it all seems like a bit of an overreaction. Then again he really shouldn’t be surprised. When _doesn’t_ Borusa overreact?

Their teacher continues by complaining about how students coming late to class takes up precious time that could have been used productively. That it takes off time he could have used for his class and for teaching. Koschei pretends to be remorseful, nodding along Borusas speech while he thinks about how the only one wasting time at the moment is actually their teacher.

He zones out and looks over at Theta. The other boy is grinning sideways at him his eyes filled with amusement. Koschei frowns at him. Theta always gets an unhealthy amount of joy out of getting Koschei in trouble like this. He’s told him so before. _You’re just too perfect otherwise Kos! You_ ** _need_** _someone to taint your image, believe me! And I’m the only one fit for the job!_

Every single time when he gets them into detention or sent to their dorms with extra homework. It happens worryingly often.

By the other it happens why too often. Koschei doesn’t know why he keeps letting it happen. Why he keeps letting theta get away with it, why he lets him get them into situations like this. Why he just keeps getting along with this.

Koschei wants to punch him in the face. Koschei wants to kiss him. Wants to kiss the stupid self-absorbed grin off Thetas face.

„And I think you will agree when I say punishment is in order. So this time a month detention for the both of you since extra homework doesn’t seem to work anymore.“

„What?“ Both Koschei and Theta yell at the same time.

Yes Koschei definitely wants to punch him now.

In the end none of their protesting helps. When they try to argue against his decision Borusa threatens to add on another two weeks and just sends them to their seats. Koschei isn’t sure who he wants to punch more. Borusa or Theta. Both are _very_ tempting options. _A month of detention._ He tries not to think about how much time that will take off of his studying time. In his mind he quickly rearranges his self-imposed timetable. He sighs. It means hell have to pull more one-nighters than he anticipated. If he wants to keep up his grades at least.

His headache worsens at the thought.

Grimacing he lets himself fall into his chair and mentally prepares himself for not only a boring but also a lesson loaded with passive aggressiveness. Borusa is petty like that. He’s probably going to make Koschei recite all major redshift surveys they’ve learned about so far just for the fun of it. Not that Koschei is going to have real problems doing that. Unlike Theta he does actually study after all. It’s just going to be so _tiring_.

As he sits down Millennia turns around to him grinning. „Thanks for the 15 minute delay. Every minute the lesson is cut short is a blessing.“ Her voice is lowered so Borusa can’t hear her. Not that it’s particularly necessary. This regeneration of their teacher does not have the best of hearing abilities.

She’s definitely right about what she’s saying. The whole thing was probably a very welcome distraction for the rest of the class. Still. A whole month detention? A whole month detention with Borusa? Not. Worth. It.

Whispering in return, he leans slightly forward in his chair. „You can thank Theta for that. If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t be in this mess.“ He pointedly shoots a glance over to where Theta is sitting diagonally from him.

„Hey!“ Theta yells way too loudly.

Borusa stops in his lecture and shoots the blonde boy an annoyed look. Theta turns back to the front and pretends to listen, but Koschei can hear him whisper out of the corner of his mouth.

„It’s not even that bad! It’s just detention Kos!“

„You’re not seriously telling me you wouldn’t prefer literally _anything else_ to spending a whole month in Borusas dusty classroom and having to listen to his whack poetry while trying to concentrate on his extra cartography assignments?“

„When you put it like that it _is_ pretty bad“ Koschei just grunts in response and aggressively opens his book on the page the teacher mentions.

„At least we’ll be in detention together. Huh Kos?“ Thetas voice sounds weirdly hopeful. Koschei doesn’t answer but there’s a soft smile on his face while he pretends to study the graphic Borusa is explaining. He can see Ushas raising her eyebrow at him form the corner of his eye.

It turns out that Koschei was right and Borusa does try torturing both Koschei and Theta with his questions but quickly gives up when Theta refuses to give serious answers and Koschei knows all the answers. After that the rest of class is just boring.

The lesson stretches on and on and it’s just one gigantic info dump about cartography systems for the fourth dimension when theres time loops involved. Koschei thinks about how that is actually something that would be incredibly interesting, if it was taught to them by literally anyone other than Borusa. Somehow that teacher even manages to make time loops boring. Koschei didn’t think that was possible.

What the boredom does at least, is that his anger at Theta dies down halfway through the lesson. So what if they’ll have to go to detention for the next few weeks? Theta is right, it won’t even be that bad, if the two of them go together. They’ll make fun of Borusas bad poetry together. They’ll have something to laugh about after.

When the lesson is slowly coming to an end there is barely more than ten minutes to go, koschei isn’t really angry at all anymore. Maybe a little bit. But it’s very hard staying angry at Theta when he’s trying to throw paperclips into the collar of Borusas robes, while the teacher is turned away to the blackboard.

So hard to stay angry. It’s downright impossible.

Just when they all start to relax, their thoughts already halfway in lunch break and no-one in the class really paying attention anymore Borusa turns around.

„And now.“ He announces. „Your graded papers from last quarter.“

The whole class groans and collectively shuffles uncomfortably as their teacher opens one of the cupboards on his desk and pulls out a stack of papers. Millennia is clearly worried, nervously tapping her pencil against the desk, while Theta next to her doesn’t look affected at all.

Not that he would care about his grades anyways. No matter how much Koschei tries to tell him how important it is. Ushas who is sitting next to Koschei looks bored.

Koschei himself isn’t worried either. _He’s not._ Still. There’s a whispering voice in his head that sounds dangerously like his fathers. _Only the best is acceptable. Second places don’t count._ Koschei shouldn’t be worried. He’s never scored second place in Spatial cartography. The way Borusa teaches it everyone finds it too boring to actually invest time into it. A few of the others come close, but Koschei knows he’s the best. So he really isn’t worried.

_Not worried at all._

Borusa hands him his paper and Koschei relaxes, a self confident smirk spreading across his face. _97%_ Thats as good as perfect. Good enough. Maybe next time he’ll manage to get the full score. Still, theres absolutely no why anyone will manage to-

Next to him Ushas cracks her kuckles. „Ha! _100%_ Good too know that all-nighter actually paid off.“ She flips her hair and smiles. Koscheis eye twitches. „Hey, Theta!“ Uschas leans forward to peak over Thetas shoulder. „What did you get?“

„90% haha.“ Theta turns around grinning at Ushas and Koschei. „And I just wrote this the night before the deadline. Didn’t even research it! Also I’m pretty sure I made up one of the statistics.“ He frowns. „Hey Kos you okay? If you grip your paper any tighter you’ll rip it.“

Is Koschei okay? Is he? He’s not quite sure himself. He wants to stuff Ushas paper down her throat and throw her out the window. _Take a deep breath Koschei. Just take a deep breath. It won’t help you raise your grade if you commit murder._ He manages to relax his fingers and smoothes out the crinkled front page.„Oh im great. I’m wonderful. Everything is just wonderful.“ He grits out every single word, while he tries to crack a smile. He knows it can’t be very convincing.

Theta pushes his own paper carelessly into his bag. Theres still a concerned look on his face.

Ushas snatches Koscheis paper out of his hand to read the grade on top. „Ha! No wonder he suddenly got even grouchier than usual. Im 3% better than him!“ She grins as Koschei snatches back his paper. „You’re slacking off Koschei.“

„Shut up, Ushas.“ He presses out between gritted teeth and starts packing up his things. „This isn’t going to happen again. I’ll be back at the top of the class with the next assignment.“

He forcefully grabs the rest of his things and storms out the classroom.

„Hey!“ He can hear Thetas call out the room. „Kos, wait! Kos!“

Koschei walks faster down the but Theta pushes through between Millennia and Rallon and quickly catches up with him. Reaching his side he slows down beside him. „Hey“ He breathes.

Koschei ignores him. His headache is getting worse.

„Its not that bad really.“ Theta tries to cheer him up. „Like you said, you’ll be back on top of the class next time. And even if you aren’t-„

„I will be.“

„Sure. But still. Just in case Ushas beats you again. _If_ she does. There would be nothing wrong with that! You can’t always be the best in _every_ class. And your the best in almost everything.“

„Exactly. _Almost_ everything.“

„But that’s great isn’t it. You don’t have to be the best at everything“

Theta just doesn’t understand. When he leaves the Academy for holidays to return home to his house he doesn’t have Lord Oakdown waiting at the door to sneer down at him when he dares to bring home any grades that aren’t the best. Anything that is not better than 95%. And every then it’s all just _why not 96%_ and when it's 96% ist _why not 100%_? Why are you not perfect? why can’t you just do what we expect of you.

And it’s even worse when there’s someone else getting a better score than him. _I heard that Lungbarrow boy surpassed you in thermodynamics again. This is unacceptable Koschei. We expect better of you._

He stops walking and Theta almost walks past him until he comes to a halt. „Just shut up Theta. You don’t get it do you? Second best isn’t good enough!“ It’s his fathers words rolling off his tongue and it makes him want to throw up.

Theta looks angry now instead of warm and helpful. „Thats what you think? Really? Anything except perfect isn’t good at all? _By the Other,_ Koschei no-one is perfect. Not people and not grades. And yours are as close to perfect as they get. If you think second best isn’t any good what does that mean for me? I'm the second or sometimes even third after you and Ushas in a lot of subjects! So what does that supposedly make me?“

„That’s not“ Koschei frowns. „You know thats not what I mean. You know I just… It’s just the standard for me, I-“

„Then don’t say it if you don’t mean it! And to shouldn’t be a standard for you either!“

Koschei is really just making this worse isn’t he? His head is throbbing he massages his temples with his fingertips. The cold of his fingers soothes the pain only slightly.

„You just don’t get it Theta. Who even cares if you come home with a bad grade. It’s not like anyone even has any expectations like that for you! It's not like your house name is important enough that you could even sully the name. And it’s not look your parents or Brax actually care anymore what you’re doing in school. It’s just not the same for you Theta!“

The open hurt on Thetas face shows him he’s gone too far. By the other has he gone too far. Koschei knows he never should have brought Thetas family into this. Or his house. Theres too much truth in what Koschei just spat into Thetas face, but he never should have said any of it out loud. Especially not in a fight. He didn’t even mean it like that.

It’s what Gallifreyan society and the other houses think. That Lungbarrow is somehow _less. Less important. Less refined. Less nobel._ That doesn’t mean it’s the way Koschei thinks about it. Never Koschei. He knows it’s a particularly sore spot for Theta. He _knows_ that. _By The Other_ , he’s such an idiot.

Thetas facial expression shifts from hurt to anger really fast. He looks really pissed. 

„You can be so horrible sometimes Koschei!“ He looks so serious. When has Theta ever been proper serious? „I know that you don’t mean it like that. I know you too well to actually buy that from you. But you know. You know, how I feel about all this stuff. And I know your pissed because of your grade and I know that stuff like that is important to you. But a grade that’s somehow not good enough for you shouldn’t push you to snap at me like that! _By The Other,_ Koschei just-“he turns away. „Just leave me alone for the rest of the day. And try to be less of an asshole later!“ With that he sprints off after the others, that have already left for lunch.

For a while Koschei just stands there, stares after him until Theta turns the corner and then stares a bit more at the empty hallway.

* * *

The rest of the day Koschei feels miserable. Theta avoids him the whole lunch brake, so Koschei has to sit with Ushas, the reminder of his failure. Ushas clearly isn’t too happy about it either, but she also seems to pity him too much to let him sit by himself. She manages to be more stoic about it than he does. Just arches her eyebrow at him when he stares longingly at where Theta is sitting with the rest of the Deca at the other side of the hall.

„Just go over to him and apologize. Whatever you did I’m sure hell forgive you. He’s like that.“ She says, as she’s follows his gaze. She’s right, Koschei thinks. Thats what Theta is like. _Endless forgiveness._ Their fights never last too long. Theta is really bad at staying mad at Koschei. It will be fine.

He still feels awful.

„He said he doesn’t want to see me right now.“ He pokes his food with little interest and sighs. „How am I supposed to apologize, if he doesn’t even want to see me.“

„Just go over now!“

„I’m just gonna make it worse. I don’t even know what to say.“ Saying _I’m sorry_ just sounds so lame when he tries it in his head and he’s sure it would be even less effective in action.

„Then try it later. When is both of your next free period?“ Ushas looks already fed up with the conversation and Koschei sees her eying the book about Dyson spheres lying next to her.

„He’s on the zero-grav-hyperball team again this quarter. He’s gonna be on there most time after the next class.“ He miserably glances down into the food he’s been picking at.

„Mmmhm.“ Ushas mumbles and as he looks up she has already started reading her book. Koshcei sighs. „I’m just gonna talk to him in the evening.“ He says but Ushas is pretending to be too emerged in her book to actually hear him. Koschei sighs deeply again and leans back in his chair.

The rest of the day isn’t any less horrible than the beginning. Koschei doesn’t see Theta after lunch, but he’s constantly thinks about him. An about their fight. His thoughts are spiraling. The anxiety is building up over the whole afternoon and he can barley concentrate on the lessons.He knows he’ll probably have to revisit the topics of todays lesson. Nothing of the information seems to stick today. He needs to make this okay again, he knows he fucked up bad this time. _So bad._

_He'll fixt this. Everything will be fine._

_It has to be._

**Author's Note:**

> Really hope you liked this so far ;) the second chapter is almost finished so it'll probably be here soon. 
> 
> Love you all and thank you for reading <3


End file.
